OpenAI's Joshua Achiam: firing of safety researchers looks like 'a real own-goal'

OpenAI's Joshua Achiam says that at first glance the firings look like 'a real own-goal', that company procedures should accommodate actions that may later be seen as whistleblowing, and that OpenAI should give a more detailed account of what information was allegedly mishandled.

I'm going to wait for a bit more information to come out before forming a very firm opinion, but at first glance this looks like a real own-goal.

We're in a very strange moment in history around the collective understanding of artificial superintelligence and paths to safety around it, and a very difficult moment for trust in the AI labs to do the right thing where it comes to independent oversight and verification.

Company procedures can (and somewhat obviously should) have some flexibility here to accomodate actions that might in the future be widely understood as whistleblowing. While I don't think safety researchers should have infinite latitude to disclose technical secrets, the exact kind of information they allegedly "mishandled" matters a lot and I would expect to see a more detailed account of what that information supposedly was to justify an action so enormously consequential and potentially damaging.

Quoting @AndrewCurran_: Reporting from the WSJ. That fact that three alignment/safety researchers left this morning was already being discussed here on X.

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